King of the Monsters

By the time we got to the late 80's Godzilla was a household name in the US. What with almost 30 films released in Japan, and many of these early films being late night horror features on US syndicated television, kids in the US grew up with a keen understanding of Kaiju (big monster). While US households would not be privy to our own Kaiju revolution for a few years yet with Saban's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in 1993, there were a fair few video games over the years that either featured the King of the Monsters himself (Godzilla's nick-name), or played into the giant monster battle theme. One such game in the late 1980's was Midways, Rampage. Another, King of the Monsters by SNK just a few years later. 

Released in early 1991 after the Neo-Geo's AES home launch in Japan, King of the Monsters rode the wave of popular Kaiju games in its home country and saw some decent success in game centers. Both Game Machine in Japan and RePlay in the US (arcade industry publications) cited that King of the Monsters was one of the top five grossing arcade games in each region in the early months of 1991. Given that Street Fighter 2 released in arcades the same week as King of the Monsters, our Kaiju battler still had some room to breath before arcades were inundated with 2D fighting games. Due to very decent sales in the arcade, King of the Monsters saw ports to both the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo) and Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) the following year by Japanese toy manufacturer Takara. 

As one of only two wrestling games on the Neo-Geo (the other being 3-Count-Bout), King of the Monsters is cited by many fans as being the better of the two. Though, both wresting games aren't very fondly remembered these days. Still, King of the Monsters spawned one sequel that came out in 1992 that ended up being a very different beast (see what I did there?) altogether. Set up more as a belt-action-brawler than a 1:1 wresting game, King of the Monsters 2 has quite a different tone and feel than this first outing.  

At the beginning of King of the Monsters you are asked to choose whether you'd like to play solo against the computer, co-op against the computer, or a 1P Vs. 2P mode. Once you choose your mode, you can then choose one of six Kaiju to battle it out against all others for world domination! There really isn't any story here to speak of, and the ambitions of these monsters doesn't go any further than "destroy the other guy."

The control set up is pretty simple: A punches, B kicks, C runs, A+B jumps, and hold A to grapple. From a grapple state you can activate each monster's special wrestling attacks. You can also do some non-wrestling special moves that are unique per character - like breath fire and the like. While the set up sounds simple, the act of triggering any grapple moves is frustrating at best and throw your controller across the room at worst. Even against a human player, though, knowing exactly what move will come out and who wins the grapple war seems more like a random, hidden dice role than requiring any actual skill. Just make sure your button mashing fingers are ready to win the grapple war. Or, at least use a controller with a turbo function.

Each city you use as a battle ground has a boundary that acts like the edges of a wrestling ring you can throw your opponent into and bounce them off of. Beware, though, as it is electrocuted and you will get fried if you haphazardly walk into it. The stages themselves aren't very dynamic in nature aside from crushing small buildings under your feet and being able to pick up larger buildings to use to knock into your opponent. In true wrestling game fashion, the less health you have the easier it is to be KO'ed. Although, even when you run out of life you can still survive a knock down if you press the A button fast enough before the timer reaches the count of three.

As with many SNK games, they like to throw power-ups your way and King of the Monsters is no different. After landing a successful wrestling move on an opposing monster they will drop a power-up. There are 3 power levels, and you have to gather 10 power-ups to reach the next level. There is a power gauge under your life bar that lets you know how many power-ups you've collected and how far to go until you reach the next power level. Once you have reached the max number of power-ups for that power level, your monster will grow a little bit and change color to let you know they have reached their next form. The nice thing is that you don't lose your power level when you die, so as long as you continue your game you keep your power levels. Like most AES games, you only have four credits to clear the game if you're not playing in Vs mode - and good luck seeing the ending on those four credits.

The difficulty in King of the Monsters is definitely up there, like other early Neo-Geo releases. That said, playing solo isn't a completely insurmountable feet like 3-Count-Bout, but due to the random nature of the battles and focus on button mashing your way to victory, the overall game is a shallow experience that overstays its welcome pretty quickly. 

King of the Monsters isn't an ugly game, but like many early Neo-Geo releases it certainly shows its age. While the Kaiju sprites are big and well detailed, they all move with a choppy animation set and feel somewhat sluggish to control. The cities all have fun easter eggs that represent the country you're supposed to be fighting in, so look for famous landmarks and the like when you have a second to divert your attention away from the button-mash fest you'll be embroiled in. Like the visuals and presentation, music is just fine. It has a dire tone to it that wouldn't feel out of place in a Kaiju film. Other than that, the presentation is pretty bare bones with no real bombast or nifty effects. 

Overall, King of the Monsters is a shallow game that will wear thin playing solo but will hold its own for a while against a buddy for some button-mashy fun. Make no mistake, though, this is one Neo-Geo game that's a better curio of bygone days rather than a must-play classic. Both the US and Japanese AES releases are around the $250 mark or just a bit more depending on condition. The Japanese release only came in the cardboard box variant, though, so if you want the more sturdy vinyl case you'll need to source the US version. A usual, the MVS version is much cheaper at around $50 or so, while the Neo CD did not see a release.

Unlike many early Neo-Geo releases, King of the Monsters actually saw home ports to the various 16-bit consoles of the day - which aren't all that bad considering the vast difference in hardware spec and cartridge memory size. Each version is missing a couple characters, and of course the fidelity has been turned down to fit the confines of the 16-bit home consoles. 

King of the Monsters is a hard one to suggest for new Neo-Geo owners. It's a cheaper game, sure, and when you get your shiney new (to you) console, you want to go crazy buying games. Even when you buy a turd of a game you'll defend it because you've never spent that kind of money on a game before and have to justify your purchase. Don't let King of the Monsters be that game, though. Unless you're actually trying to shelf collect games, you'll more than likely sell this one after a couple months to get the money to get the better games you should have waited for. Unless you have very, very strong nostalgia for this one, hold off and get King of the Monsters 2 instead.